The Spar Phenomenon

djpbarry

I'm curious to know what people make of the epidemic of Spar shops we have in this country - it would seem the independent corner shop is a thing of the past, in urban areas at least. There is a Spar shop across the road from my apartment building and I cannot help wondering why they are such a popular franchise? I cannot imagine the owner's profits are vastly improved by having "Spar" emblazoned across the shop front - I would have thought a fully independent greengrocer would do just as well, if not better?

gucci

fair play to them, i think there are now more spar shops than people in dublin city...

simu

It's mostly Galas around here. And they're not really all that convenient imo. Nearly impossible to find bread (apart from sliced pan and "cuisine de france" muck, basic veg (carrots, onions - nothing fancy) in any of them and they can be surprisngly lacking in basic toileteries etc too.

I miss the independent shops of old

I assume they are easier to run than the old shops - otherwise, why would people have switched? The decoration, product sourcing, advertising etc is taken care of by the franchise operators so that's less for the manager to do.

Sam Vimes

Its all about economies of scale. A corner shop buys 3 boxes of shampoo bottles and pays a fiver for each. Spar buys 3000 boxes, pays a euro for each and distributes them to the stores

jdivision

Also a serious number of the Spars in Dublin until recently were owned by one person.

http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:mWBH3or-lA0J:archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2002/05/26/story52786628.asp+John+Clohisey+Spars+for+sale&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ie

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/08/27/story16717.asp

Thundercracker

mostly londis and spar in my area, id be even more concerned about statoil petrol stations tbh

Naos

Its all about economies of scale people, I think Commander Vimes discussed this earlier with a post or two.

But yeah, it's cheaper to run with regards to purchasing goods, advertising etc.

I was in Hawaii recently, and they had an 37 ABC (Similar to Spar) stores in the area of Waikiki. If you stood back on the road and looked at one, you could see another within 50 metres of it.

I don't understand how they all were able to do business in such close proximities.

Noelie

Up until recently John Clohisey owned the majority of shops, which he franchised out the managers. Clohisey would own the premesis in most cases and the franchisee would pay him a % of the shops turnover.

Lately he's been selling them off to the franchisee's so basically they are turning into independant corners shops, with some people owning multiple shops. The new owners will no longer pay Clohisey a % fee, they will only pay the Spar company a yearly fee to use the name.

As said before it's basically a ecomonies of scale, Spars buy form BWG who buy from the suppliers, thus giving the spar owners greater discounts when buying stock.

Centra would work on a similar scale and Supervalu would work the same on a larger scale.

djpbarry

"Economies of Scale" is all very well and good, but as has already been pointed out, half the time, these places don't actually supply what people are looking for, e.g. fresh veg.

Noelie

Fruit and Veg would depend on the supplier being used each Spar, also on the size of the Spar and what the Franchisee/Owner wants to stock. As would everything in the shop.

It's up to each owner to determine what the local customers want and for the shop to supply it.

projectmayhem

Mear wrote:

Its all about economies of scale people, I think Commander Vimes discussed this earlier with a post or two.

each one of those posts cost less then my one put together.

Mear wrote:

I don't understand how they all were able to do business in such close proximities.

yeah it makes no sense, until you see the lunchtime queue. i tend to go where there's less of a queue.

the perfect example of this in action is a number of different streets in NYC where there are several outlets of starbucks... all of which make huge profits.

Gillo

djpbarry wrote:

"Economies of Scale" is all very well and good, but as has already been pointed out, half the time, these places don't actually supply what people are looking for, e.g. fresh veg.

The clientelle of those store's predomiantly want convience hence the convinece store. Most of the shoppers in Spar don't want to have to go home and prepare food, hence the massive trade in microwaveable meal's the the massive queue at the deli counter.

Colonel Sanders

I think someone should tell the Spar management about 'economies of scale'. They are more expensive than any of the (albeit small number) of stand alone shops i have visited over the last year or so.

djpbarry

Colonel Sanders wrote:

I think someone should tell the Spar management about 'economies of scale'. They are more expensive than any of the (albeit small number) of stand alone shops i have visited over the last year or so.

Ah yes, I was getting to that! Why is it that people are prepared to pay so much in these so-called convenience stores?

Toto Wolfcastle

When I was in school (approx 4 years ago), there was a small independent shop and a Texaco across from the school. Both did equally good business, especially at lunchtime. The independent shop became a Spar, offering the same products as the Texaco....if not more. Within months the Spar had closed down. So slapping a well known name on it did not work at all.

I try not to shop in Centra/Spar/etc as the prices are always more expensive than bigger chains. (200g bar of chocolate in Super Valu: 2.35, same in Tesco: 1.70)

djpbarry

janeybabe26 wrote:

I try not to shop in Centra/Spar/etc as the prices are always more expensive than bigger chains. (200g bar of chocolate in Super Valu: 2.35, same in Tesco: 1.70)

I don't think anyone doubts that the larger chains are generally cheaper than the likes of Spar. But, for fresh foods such as fruit, veg, meat and fish, I would sooner go to a greengrocer, a butcher or a fishmonger (very thin on the ground these days) than a supermarket, as they usually offer cheaper and better quality produce. I do most of my food shopping on Camden St - substantially cheaper than supermarkets and I never have any trouble finding what I need. But, the problem is these outlets are in increasingly short supply.

loyatemu

whats the difference between Spar, Eurospar and SparExpress then?

djpbarry

loyatemu wrote:

whats the difference between Spar, Eurospar and SparExpress then?

Good question - I've never heard of Spar Express?!?

I used to work in a Spar shop and I think the difference between them and Eurospar is just size, but I'm not sure. I think your premises has to be of a certain size if you want to subscribe to the Eurospar franchise, but I'm really not sure. Maybe you have to be in a suburb too?

mcaul

loyatemu wrote:

whats the difference between Spar, Eurospar and SparExpress then?

Spar - 1000 to 2500 sq ft (reg convienence store)
EuroSpar 5000 - 15,000 sq ft (mini supermarket)
Spar Express - mainly hot foods & minerals & chocs & a few basic groceries.

Most Spars are independently owned but give the corner shop guy decent buying power and access to consumer information & new products.

anotherlostie

The Spar beside me is more of an inconvenience store. I live in the apartment development at Park West, and the store closes at 3pm on Saturday and does not even open on Sunday. This despite 400 apartments (plus another couple of hundred in Cedarbrook, yards away), and the closest shop a 30 minute walk (so a 60 minute round trip to get Sunday paper if you have no car). And on Sunday, there is a gym open all day, plus a bar and chinese restaurant, so it is not like it is deserted!

I wrote to them about it and was told that my message was passed on to the manager. And that was it.

Well f*ck them, I wouldn't even buy a bottle of water in it going to the gym.